In vivo antimicrobial activity of engineered mesoporous silica nanoparticles targeting intracellular mycobacteria

John Jairo Aguilera-Correa, Yara Tasrini, Miguel Gisbert-Garzarán, Aude Boulay, Tamara Carvalho, Fabien P. Blanchet, María Vallet-Regí and Laurent Kremer ()
Additional contact information
John Jairo Aguilera-Correa: Université de Montpellier
Yara Tasrini: Université de Montpellier
Miguel Gisbert-Garzarán: Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital 12 de Octubre i+12
Aude Boulay: Université de Montpellier
Tamara Carvalho: Université de Montpellier
Fabien P. Blanchet: Université de Montpellier
María Vallet-Regí: Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Hospital 12 de Octubre i+12
Laurent Kremer: Université de Montpellier

Nature Communications, 2025, vol. 16, issue 1, 1-17

Abstract: Abstract Treatments of Mycobacterium marinum, a common non-tuberculous mycobacterium associated with cutaneous infections are very challenging, emphasizing the development of new therapeutic approaches. Here we report the functionalization of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) with a series of triphenylphosphonium (TPP) substituents, which endowed them with affinity towards the surface of M. marinum in vitro, as well as within infected THP-1 cells. The presence of these nanoparticles at the bacterial surface prevents their uptake by human macrophages and dendritic cells. When loaded with doxycycline, the nanosystem exerts a potent anti-bacterial effect in planktonic cultures, biofilms, and in M. marinum-infected macrophages. Strikingly, in the M. marinum/zebrafish infection model, the doxycycline-loaded nanoparticles are associated with a pronounced decrease in the bacterial burden and a high embryo survival rate. These results disclose the proposed MSN nanosystems as a promising alternative for the treatment of M. marinum infection and, presumably, against a broader range of mycobacterial infections.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-62623-y Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-62623-y

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62623-y

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().